Peaches are in season, right now. They’re uber-cheap, from somewhere nearby, and absolutely delicious. Every year around this time, Loblaws et al. has a basket sale, where they sell 3L baskets of all kinds of fruit and veg for $3 each: potatoes, beets, peaches, nectarines, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots…
So we broke from the routine meals for a few days this past week and had special salads. This one is based on Jamie Oliver’s Grilled Peach and Bresaola salad from Jamie At Home. I didn’t find Bresaola, so I improvised with Speck, which is a smoked Proscuitto, and fantastic in this salad. I changed the dressing to match, using Sage instead of Tarragon.
This is really straightforward, as most salads are. The one thing I’d like to point out is to watch for flare-ups while grilling the peaches. Just move them away from the flare-up then move them back. You’ll get this sooty, greasy coating on the peaches if the flare-ups are really bad. They’ll still taste good, just extra…grill-y.
Serves 2
- 4 medium peaches, pitted and halved
- olive oil, salt and pepper
- 2 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
- 2 handfuls salad leaves
- 8 slices speck
- feta cheese
For the dressing
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp yogurt
- 2-3 sage leaves, finely chopped
Get the grill hot.
In a small bowl, place the peaches, cover with olive oil, salt and pepper, and rosemary. Once the grill is hot, put them on. You want nice grill marks, and just-soft peaches.
In a jam jar, place the dressing ingredients and shake up.
Lay out 4 slices of speck lazily on a plate. Place 4 peach halves on top. Dress the leaves, then place a handful of leaves on top of the peaches. Crumble the feta over everything. Serve immediately.
Delicious!
